Aaron Rodgers has made his love for ayahuasca and other psychedelics well known. He's hoping it won't be far out until others can use it as well.
Rodgers, the keynote speaker at the Psychedelics Sciences 2023 convention in Denver on Wednesday, told the crowd there have been "hundreds" of NFL players who have reached out to him about ayahuasca wanting to learn more about his experience with the psychedelic. And Rodgers said he and his teammates have been brought closer by a connection with "aya."
"The cool thing is when you're able to sit in ceremony with anybody, it changes your relationship with them," Rodgers said, according to the Denver Post. "I've been fortunate enough to sit in ceremony with teammates and I'm telling you, it is radically life-changing. And it's wild to be in a locker room and look over and know, like, I've been in the 'maloca' with you, man. It's pretty special. It changes the dynamic for sure."
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The Jets' new quarterback has been open about his use of ayahuasca in the past. Back in August 2022, he spoke on "The Aubrey Marcus Podcast" and said it was "no coincidence" he won back-to-back MVPs in 2020 and 2021 after taking ayahuasca, which is a hallucinogenic tea he had while in Peru.
The conference for which Rodgers was the keynote speaker came not long after Colorado voters decriminalized psychedelic mushrooms, and was held by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, according to the Associated Press. It featured a range of speakers talking about their experiences with psychedelics and advocating for legalization at the federal level.
"We have the opportunity to change the conversation by dispelling these archaic myths about the dangers of them or the negative side effects or whatever might be and start to share actual wisdom and truth about it," Rodgers said, according to the New York Post. “It’s a permission slip for other people to stand up and talk about their own experiences, to join in and to dive in and to learn about it.
“And I think that’s how we move this conversation forward is more people to be out there comfortable talking about their own journeys. Their spiritual journey, their medicine journey, their ceremonies. So we can bring this to people who need it.”
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For Rodgers, that spiritual journey has often been one of quieting self-criticism. He described his "anti-me" as the "greatest opponent" because it knows exactly what to say to perfectly criticize himself, per the Denver Post.
But using psychedelics like ayahuasca has helped provide himself with the "antidote" to that self-criticism.
"I found a deeper self love," Rodgers said, according to the AP. "It unlocked that whole world of what I'm really here to do is to connect, to connect with those guys, and to make those bonds and to inspire people."
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Rodgers dove into more than just his experiences with ayahuasca. He discussed what he has learned from an astrologist to build relationships with his teammates.
"I would find ways to randomly figure out guys' birthdays, city and birth time so I could go back on astro.com and look up their chart," Rodgers said, per the Denver Post. "Like, 'oh, six house sun, OK, watch him, he's really hard on himself.' True story."
And of course, Rodgers couldn't go through the conference without throwing shade at people who would criticize him.
"I guarantee you all these bums who want to come after me online about my experience and stuff, they've never tried it," Rodgers said, according to the Denver Post. "They're the perfect people for it. We need to get these people taking it. Not that they wouldn't need a whole lot, because most of them are kind of the low peons they send at me."